The Roma fan who left Liverpool supporter Sean Cox in a coma faces time behind bars after pleading guilty to assault.

Simone Mastrelli, 30, accepted GBH charges at Preston Crown Court after he attacked Mr Cox before Liverpool's Champions League win over Italian club Roma last April. He is due to be sentenced today.

Mastrelli, from Rome, had been extradited last month after being arrested on a European Arrest Warrant in Italy in connection with the attack on father-of-three, Mr Cox.

Mr Cox suffered serious catastrophic head injuries in the attack and has been recovering at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

He spent four-and-a-half weeks at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, a specialist neurological unit for brain injuries, following the attack on April 24, before being airlifted to another specialist unit at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital.